YFQ-48A Talon Blue completes first fully autonomous flight at Mojave

Northrop Grumman's (NYSE: NOC) YFQ-48A Talon Blue has completed its first fully autonomous flight, covering taxi, takeoff, in-flight maneuvers and landing at Mojave, California.

The company announced the flight on October 3. Talon Blue was developed with company investment and is part of Project Talon, an internally funded portfolio that Northrop Grumman said is aimed at speeding the development of mission-ready autonomous airpower.

Northrop Grumman said the aircraft combines a modular design with advanced manufacturing methods to lower cost and support faster production without giving up mission capability. Design and manufacturing changes cut the part count and overall weight, which the company said reduces cost and allows quicker production to meet growing demand for autonomous systems.

The aircraft has a high air intake, a wide wheelbase and an integrated weapons bay. Northrop Grumman said those features were chosen with flexible operating concepts in mind and support a wide variety of missions for the United States and allied partners.

"Our customers made it clear they need autonomous systems that can be fielded faster and more affordably without sacrificing mission effectiveness," said Craig Woolston, vice president and general manager, research and advanced design, Northrop Grumman.

"Talon Blue's first flight is one step toward a new generation of autonomous capabilities. Every flight and lesson strengthens our broader autonomy work and sharpens what comes next," Woolston said.

The company said the flight draws on seven decades of work on autonomy and more than 500,000 autonomous flight hours, and that lessons from Talon Blue will inform its future autonomous systems.

Project Talon also includes Talon IQ, an autonomy testbed that operates on the Scaled Composites Model 437 aircraft. Talon IQ runs Northrop Grumman's Prism Mission Autonomy software. The company said it provides an accessible government reference architecture that speeds the maturing of autonomy and reduces the time and cost of bringing new mission capabilities forward.

Northrop Grumman said Talon Blue and Talon IQ together allow it and its partners to develop, test and field autonomous capabilities tailored to emerging threats and operational requirements.

CONTACT: https://news.northropgrumman.com/autonomous-systems/northrop-grumman-advances-autonomous-airpower-with-first-talon-blue-flight